"Best MEtal Gear Game Ever!!"

IntroductionEverything started with Metal Gear Solid on Nintendo. It started what was one of the best of its kind back in the day to making it one of the most popular games around. The big icebreaker was when Metal Gear Solid was released for the original Play station. It showed how great you could turn a game from NES graphics to fantastic 3D and game play for its time. This is the upgraded game from Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. It's called Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence. Everything is mostly the same but with some new features.

StoryIn this installment you are put in the cold war era in the 60s and instead of playing as solid snake you are Jack (naked snake) AKA Big Boss! Metal Gear Solid 3 tells the story of everything that took place in the past that lead up to the very first Metal Gear Solid ever released and opened the story for future games in the series. You will find out how Jack became the Big Boss and how all the other characters and story plot lines came about. It has amazing cut scenes that tell the story so vivid. All the different leading characters in the game will keep you very intrigued during the entire game. With each passing chapter in the game you will find yourself wanting to know more and more about the story as it continues. You will notice character bonds that will help aid you in the game. In my honest opinion, I think that this was the best story I ever played in any game.

Game playIn this upgraded version you have a new camera control, which is really nice. Everything else about the game is just about the same. There have been a few more camouflages added along with new difficulty settings. The European extreme mode is really fun! You have to try and beat the entire game without ever being spotted once. A new theater mode has also been added so you can watch all the cool cut scenes again. There's also snake vs. monkey. Where you have to go around and shock a certain amount of monkeys in each stage.

There's been a real cool option added to this version and its online mode! You can go online and play against other people using Metal Gear Solid 3 characters and weapons. There is also headset support so you can talk to everyone you play.

Like all the other Metal Gear games that were released since Metal Gear Solid on the play station this one is somewhat the same but with a big twist, camouflage! You play as Jack and to get past just about the entire game you have to use different camouflages depending on your surroundings. It's really something new and innovative to the series. You can collect more and very different camouflages as you progress in the game that will help you during the game. The stealth in this game is some of the best you will find. Each camouflage you put on will tell you how camouflaged you are in the spot your standing or laying. The best you can get is 100% camouflaged. You can customize the camouflage on your face and body. All of it is very necessary for getting past the game sneaky as possible. Not being seen is key to survival!

Another thing is stamina that's very important to your survival in the game. As you move around, climb, swim, craw etc. You will slowly lose stamina and when you're down to nothing your stomach will start to growl and that will cause guards to find you. To keep you're stamina up there's a few ways of going about it. You can collect food packets in the game or you can catch your own! Yes that's one cool feature in snake eater (hence the name snake eater) you can kill or catch wild animals in the areas you are on. They vary from crocodiles, snakes, and rats, birds, to even the little spiders. But as you can eat most of this stuff to regain your stamina some of the food can and will rot over time. Other animals or insects can be poison and will harm you.

Also new to the series is the ability to heal yourself. If you get shot, stabbed, burnt, broken bones or whatever comes your way. You will have to open up the heal menu and take care of it all yourself. Which I found really cool, you have all the different supplies you will need to treat each different injury. If left alone and not fixed it can cause you more harm then good depending on the injury.

Like past Metal Gear Solids this one also has the codec call feature in it. You will be using this a lot during the entire game. It will progress the story along so much and also relay helpful information to you not to mention help you when you are stuck on what to do. You will be codec named Naked Snake like I said above during these calls. There are even secret frequencies you can tune into to turn off alarms you get from guards

Something very cool and amazing that took a lot of work to put into the game is the new fighting technique. It is called CQC (Close Quarters Combat). If you find yourself caught from sneaking around in grass and have to fight a guard this is what you will be doing. One really cool feature was if 4 guards are attacking you at once you could grab one using CQC and aim your gun at the other guards and take them all out. Now that does come in handy but the enemy AI is really smart. They will sometimes shoot the guard your holding or if you're close to them enough they will cut you to knock you down and release the guard. This is how you get certain codec calls to turn off alarms or just get information about certain things in the game. It also adds to some fun kill moves you will ever see in a Metal Gear Solid game. While you have hold of a guard or someone you will pull out your knife and gun and just about threaten them till they tell you what you need to know. The down side about doing this is if you do kill an enemy or knock them out you have to hide that body before another guard sees it. If they do they will call in a ton of other guards to come check the area out and if you are found then your back to fighting. Of course you could always take out every guard near you that comes to help to speed up the alarm time. But then where would the sneaky CQC fun be!

You also will have a huge array of gadgets and weapons to chose from in this game. From thermal goggles right down to the infamies box! All the guns you can collect and use during the game are all very cool. Allot you will know like the M16 or the AK-47. You even get to have your hands on some sniper rifles. You also get to start out with and use one of the very first silencers made for that era (remember now this takes place in the 60s) for your guns. With each shot you shoot it will decrease in sound suppression and eventually break.

Not to mention the great boss fights you will encounter in the game. This game had some very new and interesting boss fights in a game. Like the old Metal Gear Solid games this one was no different. Each boss always had a certain weakness you had to find out in order to win. Every boss had their own area they took place in and with each area they were in they all used it to their advantage. Also making you think of a way to deal with it. There's a good amount of boss fights in the game you will encounter. I will say this though; this game has a boss fight in it that I have to admit was one very fun and cool battle. I can honestly say that you will enjoy every second of the boss fights in Metal Gear Solid 3.

GraphicsThe graphics in this game are what you would of expected from play station 2. But it does push the PS2 to its limits. The cut scenes alone will show you how great the graphics are in this game. From all the different areas in the game, all the motion from the trees and animals it all looks so life like. All the character models are really rendered nice and smooth for play station 2. It's a huge upgrade from Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. A cool feature with the graphics is like I said about the camouflage, no matter what camouflage you have on it will show up in any cut scenes in the game.

SoundThe sounds effects in this game were done perfectly. With each new area you always heard the wind in the trees, the grass being shuffled around when crawling in it. Even can hear the birds or crocodiles that are around. From the sounds of the guns to the guards talking and yelling for backup, you will think that you are in the game! Even the codec calls you got during the whole game had such great voice acting. The voice acting in the game during the cut scenes were amazing, some of the best voice acting you will find in a PS2 game and a Metal Gear Solid game to date.

Replay ValueThe game is still the same in this one but with all the added bonus features plus the online support. I think you will be playing this for along time. Also with the new difficulty settings you can try out how hard the game can get.

Closing CommentsMetal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater was an amazing game and Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence made it even better. If you like Metal Gear Solid 3 you will really like this upgraded version.